1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic trading systems and more particularly to an automatic trading method and apparatus wherein a confirmation procedure is provided to verify that a subject trade is properly authorized. After a request for automatic trading of stock and the like, the confirmation occurs by way of a pocket bell device, a handheld telephone or a family computer via a public communication circuit network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The trading of items such as stocks, medium term national bond funds and the like has been practiced by a variety of different means with terminals such as a telephone, a family computer or a personal computer via a public communication circuit network. For example, a home trading system has been practiced for recording the trading data into the file for registering the trade without the need or aid of special security measures from a security company. More particularly, at the time of making a contract with a contractor to accept automatic trading from him, a specified code to clearly identify the contractor and a password is set in order to assure that the automatic trading is true and proper, i.e., that it is a "fair" trade. The specified code and password are communicated prior to the processing of the automatic trading, and they are checked to determine if they are correct and in proper agreement. If so, the contractor is recognized to be the contractor who has the specified code, and then his order for automatic trading is accepted.
In accordance with another prior known method, a terminal device for each contractor is specifically identified and authorized to communicate the request for the automatic trading. In response to a connection for automatic trading, the confirmation of the request from the previously identified terminal device is obtained by transferring back again to the terminal device the content of the automatic trading from the signal receiving side.